Sunday, May 4, 2014

A few words about simplicity: Using Red-Gate Ecosystem framework

To be honest, the first version of SCG was a standalone
application, but supporting a GUI took too much time so I decided to convert it
to an SSMS plugin – in this case I was able to use SSMS’s GUI, its editors,
syntax highlighting and so on.

After some considerable research
I discovered that the knowledge on how to write an SSMS addin is a much hidden
treasure.

I found a few blog posts, some forum threads, and almost no
official documentation!

There was a single blog post – and almost all other info sources
referred to this one – but unfortunately it is no longer available (so we lost the
first and last source of information)

Thankfully, later (much later) I encountered a few SSMS addin projects
onCodeplex(a
really nice portal). In hindsight I should have started researching on Codeplex from
the outset – but this is another story.

Anyway, I began writing my SSMS addin.

At first it was built for SSMS 2005, as SQL Server 2005 was the
primary database I was using at the time.

It was not so easy to write the addin without any readable
documentation, but against all odds, I managed
it.

Yes, there were few unfortunate peculiarities, for example, leaving
menu items around after uninstall, and so on – but at least it was working.

Later I turned to SQL 2008R2 (don’t ask me why I skipped 2008 –
everybody did!), so I was forced to integrate SCG with SSMS 2008R2 – and new
problems arose. Different SSMS editions required different versions of system
assemblies. I wasn’t a strong .Net developer (and still only just about good
enough! (R)) so I was faced with many problems – but once more i prevailed.

Later SSMS 2012 emerged on the scene accompanied with totally new
integration challenges. And don’t get me started on SSMS 2014!

It turns out that I was not the only guy who was frustrated with problems
when writing SSMS addins.

Yes, this framework has room to be further extended, expanded,
polished, and documented,but right now it can save TONS of time during addin
development.

It took about two weeks to integrate SCG to SSMS using the standard
integration libraries, and just two
hours to totally rewrite the integration using the Red Gate SSMS Ecosystem
framework. – This included downloading the framework, inspecting the sample
code, making two cups of tea, examining the sample code again, rewriting the plugin, - and subsequently throwing out a bunch of
old-fashioned proxy assemblies that were used to integrate SCG with different versions
of SSMS. These were now no longer needed!
– And finally committing the changes to SVN (yes, I’m an MS certified
specialist - and I’m using SVN, not TFS :) )

I will not detail how exactly I implemented the Red Gate SSMS
Ecosystem framework – this isn't necessary because the process itself is
pretty simple and now documentedwithexamples. The one take-home message is that you should BE AWARE of the Red Gate
SSMS Ecosystem. And now – you are, young Padawan.

May the Force be with you! ;)

SQL Code Guard is a free tool for SSMS developers and DBAs. Visit home site to download.